So I found something a little interesting today.
Nintendo of America is now letting you pre-order the digital versions of Fire Emblem Fates:
Birthright and
Conquest.
Nintendo letting you digitally pre-order games from their website is nothing new, but what's surprising is that they seem to be selling the retail versions of Birthright and Conquest as digital downloads? There is no sign of there being a vanilla download version like there is in Japan, which actually has both paths included but locks out the one you don't choose on your first playthrough for you to purchase as a discount afterwards.
Assuming this is really the case, it's not a change I was expecting, but it's something I can welcome. I think this would simplify the distribution a bit better for consumers to more easily understand.
That said, I would be personally a little bummed about this because, as I like to download all of my games, I was hoping to have a single neutral "Fire Emblem Fates" on my 3DS Home Menu screen like in Japan and not one tagged with either Birthright or Conquest. I guess they may be leaving that only to the Special Edition?
This is just my interpretation of this and I could be mistaken somehow. Alternatively, maybe both of these pre-orders could be of a "Fire Emblem Fates" digital version with only the respective path downloaded.
Until the game properly shows up on the eShop for pre-loading later, it's hard to be sure what's going on yet. But it does seem to me like the distribution won't exactly be like the Japanese release if I'm understanding everything correctly. I don't find it to be an unlikely scenario since they're already changing up how the Special Edition will offer Revelation.
